A Taste Of A Vampire

Chapter 6

Claire had dinner in the breakfast nook. She had stopped taking her meals in the grand dining room; she felt that it was silly to eat a meal alone in such a big space at such a large table when it was just her.

After dinner, she had a long, luxurious bubble bath in her bedroom. As she laid there with her eyes closed, the scenes from earlier in the day kept playing through her mind. In nearly every moment from Nicholas’ departure, she hadn’t been able to push him from her mind or to focus completely on anything that she was doing. Even the bath didn’t give her a clear mind.

She slipped into her nightgown and crawled onto her bed. Once she was nestled into her pillows, she reached over to her nightstand and picked up Elizabeth’s diary. Lifting the cover carefully, she went back to the entry where she had last left off.

“Mr. Nathan Ryder invited Giles and me to his home for tea this afternoon. His home is even larger than Grayson Manor, and much older. I was surprised at the interior of the place; there are furnishings from a great expanse of history, and it’s beautifully appointed, but there were some rather strange things that I noticed. He only had three portraits of his forefathers hanging in his home. He looks tremendously like them—it was easy to tell where he got his beauty from—but I was astounded that there were only three. Grayson Manor has walls full of portraits of family members and forefathers who lived there, and Nathaniel says that his family has owned that land and home for ages. When I asked him about the peculiarity of only having three portraits, he answered simply that the rest had been lost in a fire. That’s certainly understandable. There was another strange thing that I noticed though, and that was that there were no mirrors in the home. Not a single reflecting glass to be seen. All of the bigger homes have them, including Grayson Manor. They’ve been quite the popular item to acquire, yet he has not one. I also thought it unusual that he had no servants, other than a butler who waited on us for tea, but we saw no one else there, and he told us that he has no staff. He stated that he hires people from the village to come and care for the home, and that since it’s just him, there isn’t much to do.”

Claire stared at the words. She read them over and again three times, thinking how uncanny it was that every word that her great-great-great-grandmother had written could just have easily been written by her, and that nothing, not one thing, had changed in the time since she had written the words in her journal.

Biting at her lip in curiosity, Claire went back to the next page and continued to read the entry.

“As strange as all of it is, I am still spellbound by him, by everything about him, and I feel more drawn to him than ever. It was difficult to be around him and Giles at the same time. Giles so obviously expected me to behave as if I was his, his ward, his lady in some sense, and all I wanted was Nathaniel. I felt the distinct impression that he was keenly aware of just how much I wanted him, for I was certain that I’d seen it in his eyes when he looked at me. It was almost as if he could read my thoughts, and for the life of me, I must admit that it did not shame me to think that. I wanted him to know what I was thinking, what I want with him. I want to tell him how deeply attracted to him I am, and how close I want to be with him. He remained at a polite distance from me, but for a few minutes when Giles left us alone. He came nearer to me then, and I wanted so badly to be in his arms. I thought for a moment that he would embrace me, perhaps even that he might kiss me, but the closer her got, and the more I wanted him, the more the fires seemed to build between us, and then he turned away and kept his distance the rest of the time. Giles returned and then took me back to Grayson. I haven’t been able to stop wondering if Nathaniel wanted more with me. I desperately hope that he does.”

Claire closed the book and set it back on her nightstand. She lay in bed staring at the fireplace on the opposite wall as the bright flames curled and licked at the darkness. Her mind was a vortex of thought; so many different questions were rushing through her, tying themselves to images from her memory of his home, and all of it was a massive puzzle that seemed to be in pieces before her, and nothing she could do made it come together. She tried to combine all the strange parts of what she knew, of her time with him, of what her great-great-great-grandmother had written of his forefather, and she felt as if she was only becoming more lost in the dark. There were no answers. There was no clear connection. There were only endless questions and confounding mystery.

As she drifted off to sleep, she frowned a little, making up her mind that she was going to unravel it all herself, no matter what. Darkness took her finally, and her dreams were bizarre and disjointed.

After breakfast the next morning, there were two messages waiting for her asking her for return calls. The first was from Colin Dent. The second was from Lord Drake Thomas. She knew that he was still keenly interested in purchasing the estate. She hadn’t made up her mind what she was going to do with it, and the longer she stayed there, the more uncertain of her choices she seemed to become.

She picked up her cell phone and called Colin Dent first. It only rang twice before he answered it, sounding almost as if he was in a panic.

“Claire! My goodness, thank you for calling me back. I hope you’re getting on at the estate all right. How are things?” He sounded hopeful, as he had any time she had spoken with him.

She smiled genuinely. “Things are very good, Colin; thank you. What time will you be coming today?”

He coughed lightly. “Well, that’s just the thing. You see, I’ve had a bit of a turn up here at the London office and I won’t be able to get to you today. Actually, I won’t be able to get to you this week. I can come next Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, that’s the earliest. I’m so very sorry.”

Colin sounded miserable and Claire knew that he was as sorry as he said he was, but her heart still stopped in her chest for a long moment as she realized that it meant another week at Grayson Manor.

“There’s nothing that you can do to be here before then? I’m supposed to fly back out to the states on Sunday. I hadn’t planned on waiting another week.” She felt adrenaline begin to course through her.

“I’m so sorry your ladyship, but unfortunately, that is the case. There’s just no way for me to get there any earlier. I am sorry.” His voice was quiet.